It doesn't give us the "Wow!" that the older Olympus 14-35 f2.0 SHG gives you when you compare it to primes. I am hoping that Olympus will provide a similar lens that takes us to that level.

...and...uh...just remind us...what's the price tag on that baby?

If you are serious about perfection, that lens is about as close as it gets. And yes, it has a hefty price tag. However, if you have owned one, you are aware of how special it is.

For now I'll stay with my Oly 12mm, Panny 20 f1.7, Panny/Leica 25, and the Oly 45mm to cover those focal lengths and have the advantage of the speed and better bokeh properties

There is that - bokeh

those lenses offer. Collectively they are more expensive and bulky than the 12-35 but, that is my compromise to have the better overall IQ for now.

It looks to me like your only getting marginally better IQ from the 12mm, and same or worse from the others. But I definitely respect your choice. It just doesn't work for me.

The only lens that may be a tad "worse" is the 25mm and the 25mm has something in the way of "character" which is hard to define but if you have one you will likely use it on solo treks on ocassion just because of the special rendering properties. Just which of those lenses are you suggesting is not better than the 12-35 at a matched focal length?

From the tests I've seen, the 20 and the 25.

I already gave you the 25 as not testing as well and how it well it actually performs in real world use...but ask a group of people who own one and there will be the real test. Now for the 20mm....where are the test results showing the side by side superiority of the 12-35? I have not seen any direct comparisons of the two by a known testing/review authority. Can you give me the reference that you are referring to please?

After looking over various sites that test lenses, I am reversing my statement suggesting that the 25mm may not test well in comparison with the 12--35 at 25mm.

Okay - if that makes you happy.

It does indeed appear that the 25 would likely test out better than the 12-35 Just as it does in the Photozone tests

So now it appears that the Olympus 12mm, the Panny 20, the Panny/Leica 25 and the Olympus 45mm would all best the 12-35 Panny in comparison tests.

The 12-35 is, at least according to Photozone, decidedly better than the 20. They don't show results for the 12-35 at 25mm, so you kind of have to look at the ones at 12 and 35 and sort of average them. I mentioned this earlier.

That does not mean that the 12-35 is not a reasonably good lens.

It is not. It is an exceptionally good lens.

It just means that it doesn't quite reach the overall IQ levels of the lenses I listed above.

Yes, it does.

But then it is still at least an f stop slower than all of the other lenses (2 stops in the case of the Panny/Leica) and won't have quite as nice bokeh as the others as well.

This is mostly true. Faster, yes. Bokeh is better at the longer end. But then, I'm not really expecting bokeh out of any wider angle lens.